Fear, hate, revenge, ignorance, pettiness, apathy and many other common human foibles drive much of the noise-making in modern American public affairs. Ever-quickening authoritarian goose-steps in recent decades, the most recent decade in particular, have morphed into decisive leaps towards outright...

We failed to dodge the bullet.

In the early afternoon this past Sunday, I listened to a discussion between four authors — the writer Naomi Klein and New Yorker staff writers Kyle Chayka, Andrew Marantz, and Jia Tolentino — on a topic billed as the “Digital Culture Wars.” The discussio...